For The Longest Time
by King35763
Summary: Growing up together, Roy and Lilana have always been there for each other when the other needed it. But what will happen when it really counts?


The wind whipped around Lilina's blue hair as she turned around and yelled, "Come ON Roy! You're so slow!" Behind her, her friend Roy was jogging behind her to catch up to her, and when he stopped he was panting slightly.

"Lilina! You can't just run away when you're losing like that!"

Lilina scoffed. "I wasn't running away, and I definitely wasn't losing!" But now we're playing tag, and you're IT!" She reached out and tapped Roy, before turning and running away as fast as she could. Roy paused for a second in confusion, before grinning and chasing after her.

Eliwood and Hector watched from the side of the garden area where their children played. Hector chortled and took another drink from his cup. "Roy must be either extremely patient or stupid to put up with those tactics." He then smiled at Eliwood and said, "And knowing you old friend, he definitely isn't daft."

Eliwood chuckled. "Maybe at time, but he is still just a boy. I think he just enjoys playing the game, even if it switches whenever he's winning." He then took a small sip of his own drink, and then said, "Although are you sure she's your daughter? I'd never have thought any child of yours would give up on winning so easily."

Hector grinned and watched as Roy slowly caught up with Lilana and tagged her on the back, and the game reversed. "She likes to win, but she hates losing. But like you said, she is just still a child. Someday, she'll be strong enough to stand her ground when things get tough."

Eliwood nodded, and the two watched their children run around the yard.

Lilana was panting now, but she was almost to Roy. He was quick, but she could catch him. Slowly, she reached out her hand, and with fingers outstretched, she reached for the back of his shirt. She was so close to tagging him –

Her foot caught on a root, and she fell forward suddenly. With a cry of surprise, she grabbed out, trying to grab something to steady herself. Unfortunately, the only thing she found purchase on was Roy's shirt and, not expecting the sudden weight from behind, both of them tumbled to the ground.

"Get off me Roy!" Lilana shouted as she shoved the boy off of her. "It's not very gentlemanly to fall on a lady!"

Roy scoffed. "I didn't fall on you! You pulled me on top of you!" He huffed, and then said, "Plus, you're barely a lady anyway!"

A second later, Roy found himself back on the ground. He rubbed his shoulder in pain. "You just hit me!"

Lilana uncurled her fist and said, "Well you're just... a STUPID boy!" and stomped away. Roy just watched in confusion, trying to figure out why she had hit him suddenly.

 **Years Later**

Roy slashed his sword, raking it across the chest of a soldier, who cried in pain, and fell to the ground. Roy immediately locked swords with another soldier, and while they fought he shouted to his comrades, "Keep pushing! We can't lose here!" With a quick parry, he stabbed through his combatant, and ran forward.

Castle Ostia looked very different then he remembered it. He assumed that it was simply the years since he had been here, but he found every hallway different then how he expected to be. Or perhaps it was because he had never had to fight his way through the castle before. It didn't matter, he just needed to remember how to navigate the castle.

Where were the castle cells?

Lilana sat in the corner of her cell crying. She was tired and scared. It had all happened so fast, Bern attacking, the battle, her father... and then she was thrown down here. She had tried to blast her way out of her cell initially, but other then a few scorch marks on the walls, there weren't any signs to show her effort. She then had tried to yell for her father's soldiers, or anyone, to come and help her, but all that had gotten her was a sore throat.

So she waited, waited for her chance to escape. But for now, she just needed to let out all of her anger and frustration, and her grief. _"Well"_ she thought while wiping away her tears, _"Maybe not my anger"_. She would need that if she would ever wanted to escape. Until then, she just had to wait until

She heard the sound of a key entering the lock of her cell. For a moment, she panicked. What if she couldn't beat the soldiers? This was her one chance of escape, and if she messed it up... her mind flashed over all of the things the soldiers had said they were going to do to her. She made up her mind. If she failed at her escape, she would take her own life before they could stop her.

With her will resolved, she prepared her energy and started to run an incantation through her head, as the solid steel door slowly opened. However, instead of the helmeted soldier that she had expected to see, instead there stood a young boy, blood flecks over his armor, and his hair a brilliant red. She was so surprised that she dropped the spell she'd been preparing. "Roy?" She asked, and was met by him running up to her and hugging her.

She paused for a moment in shock, then hugged him back. Then she pulled away, though kept holding onto him, as though to make sure that he was real, and not some illusion. "What are you doing here Roy?"

"When I heard that Castle Ostia had fallen, I came as soon as I could. I needed to..." He trailed off, and then said, "It doesn't matter right now, come on! More soldiers will likely be here any moment, and there's still a long fight ahead of us."

"What fight?"

Roy grinned. "We're taking the castle back." He then reached into his satchel and pulled out a book with brilliant yellow trimming and a bolt on its cover. He held it out to Lilana. "We could use your help if you feel up to it."

Lilana looked at the tome for a second, before grabbing it. As he skin made contact, she could feel the magic energy coursing through her, and for a moment all of her hair stood up. She smiled as little arcs of electricity slowly coursed their way over her skin, before settling down. "Let's give them hell Roy."

Roy was exhausted, both from the fight today and its aftermath. Why was liberating areas so hard? He had always thought that you just had to win the battle and then everything would fall into place. Now he knew that when the battle ended the fight had only just begun. You had to deal with the survivors, the dead on both sides, and that's not even considering re-establishing leadership for the area. It was a nightmare.

So after a long day, all Roy wanted to do was go to his temporary quarters and sleep. But he had one last thing to do before that.

He managed to find his way to the room he was looking for, and stood outside, pausing. He took a deep breath, and found his heart to be beating rapidly in his chest. How is it that he faced down an entire castle today, fought numerous battles, and yet a simple visit was causing him to be scared. He cursed his own stupidity, and gave three small knocks on the door.

"Come in" he heard a quiet voice say on the other side of the door. He slowly pushed the door open to find Lilana seated at the edge of her bed, her blue hair down behind her, and her eyes puffy and red. He came in, and closed the door behind her. He stood in the entryway for a while, the two of them finding themselves in an awkward silence. Suddenly Lilana broke the silence saying, "I'm sorry for my appearance Roy, I hope you understand."

Roy shook his head and took a few steps forward, "You have absolutely nothing to apologize for Lilana. And you don't even look bad!" She glanced up at him, and he sighed and said, "Well, then how about it's understandable why you don't look great right now."

She nodded, and slowly scooted over to one side of her bed, and patted beside her, and invitation to sit down. He walked over to her and slowly sat down next to her. "I know it's a stupid question, but how're you feeling?"

Lilana didn't answer for a while, before she finally said, "It's been so much Roy. I feel numb, but then I find myself crying again every few minutes. It's terrible." Roy nodded, not knowing what to say. What do you say to a friend, who you haven't seen in years, who has just lost her father? He didn't think there was anything he could say.

He still tried to figure out something, when he heard a small sniffle. He turned to see tears starting to fall down Lilana's face, and her breathing started becoming rapid. He reached out to grab her, and pulled her into an embrace. She pulled her arms in, and allowed him to wrap his arms around her, while she started shaking and crying. They didn't say anything, but he just wrapped around her while she wept.

It was a long time before she had finally stopped crying. He assumed that she was feeling better, but had instead just reached the point where tears failed to fall anymore. He rubbed her back, and whispered to her. "You should get some rest Lilana. We can talk more in the morning."

He tried to start getting up, but found that Lilana hadn't let go of his shirt. "Please don't leave me," she whispered to him. He paused, and then nodded and said. "Okay, but you need to rest." He gently helped her stand, and helped her to the side of her bed, and after she crawled onto it, he pulled the covers over her. He then grabbed the chair from her desk, and pulled it over next to her. He sat down, and grabbed her hands, which she gripped tightly. She cracked open her eyes, and softly said, "What're you doing all the way over there?"

He smiled and said back, "I wouldn't be very gentlemenly to be any closer to a lady while she slept."

She rolled her eyes, and whispered back, "Stupid boy," but a small smile flickered on her face, before her body relaxed, and she fell into sleep. Roy sat with her all night, and their hands never let go.

Lilana sat down on her bed and sighed, pulling her hair down and starting to pull it out of their intricate braids. She wanted to change out of this uncomfortable dress as soon as she could, but for now she'd just settle for getting her hair back down.

Roy stood in the doorway of her room again, this time dressed in black formal clothes. "I'm sorry that we couldn't give him a proper send off. We didn't have the time or resources to give him a proper funeral for now."

Lilana paused for a second before resuming her hair liberation. "It's really fine Roy, like I said, my father would have much preferred a simple funeral rather then the huge state funeral he normally would have gotten otherwise."

Roy relaxed slightly. "I suppose that's true, he never was big on formalities." They smiled sadly at each other for a moment, before Roy said, "Anyway, if you'll please excuse me." He then turned towards the door and started walking towards it.

Lilana was faster though. She got up and said, "Wait Roy". Roy stopped and turned, as Lilana stood in front of him. Her heart was beating, but she asked anyway. "When you rescued me from the dungeon, you never did say why you had come to take the castle. Surely it would have been smarter to leave it, or even do a siege. But instead, you launched a full assault to take it back. Why?"

Roy stood there in silence for a moment, before he looked down to the side. "I coul-" the rest of what he said was too quiet to hear. Lilana stepped closer and asked again, and this time Roy looked in her eyes, and she could see that his face was red as he said, "I couldn't bear the thought of you locked up alone. Or worse, dead. I couldn't imagine life without you. I knew it was stupid, but I needed to do everything I could to save you."

Now it was Lilana's turn to blush. Then slowly, she stood on her tip toes, and kissed him on the lips. She quickly pulled away and said, "It was stupid yes, but I wouldn't expect anything less, you stupid boy." She hid her smile by turning her back to him and saying, "Now get out of here Roy, I simply won't feel human again until I can change out of these uncomfortable clothes." She could almost hear Roy standing there stupified, so she glanced over her shoulder and said, "Get going Roy." He shook out of his shock and nodded, and almost tripped over himself as he went out the door.

Lilana rolled her eyes. He really was an idiot. But slowly she smiled to herself, and then returned to unbraiding her hair.

 **A/N: This was written for CyberEmblem! Sorry it didn't completely match any of your requested pairings, but I felt like I could get more into the style that you said you enjoyed with these two characters. I hope you enjoy!**

 **And of course, for anyone who reads this other then Cyber, I hope you enjoy as well! This was my first time writing in a while, so please bear with me for any silly mistakes I made.**

 **(P.S. to Cormag; I told you I'd get it done, ye of little faith.)**

 **Until next time y'all!**

 **King35763**


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